Attention PC police...

[Bush loves Jiang]

Supposedly, adding "the" before "Ukraine" is now considered offensive.

[NightTrain]

1. Thanks for the heads-up!

Oh, excuse me. I meant, "Thanks for heads-up." :P

[Obamarama]

7. So, would that be a Ukrainiotomy?

Sorry...couldn't resist.

[Selwynn]

2. Seriously: why?

[BurtWorm]

5. The Ukraine was a geographic area (like the Levant, the Bosporus, etc.)

Ukraine is a political unit. (Of course that doesn't explain The Bronx and The Hague, not to mention Les Halles...)

[Maddy McCall]

3. Why?

:shrug:

[DuctapeFatwa]

4. It is because Russian doesn't have articles, and Russians learning

English suffer enough over them without having to hear one stuck in front of Ukraine for no reason.

[JVS]

6. They foolishly gave up their nukes, I'll say "the" as much as I please

I'll even call them Little Russians like they were called in the old days of czars! (BTW google of "Little Russians" turns up a lot of creepy sounding porn addresses)

[Robb]

8. Mrs. Robb and I

had ourselves a little giggle, before we knew that "Afghanis" were the currency, and "Afghans" were the people.

...Especially in light of the story recently where the government in Afghanistan traded 50-odd Taliban and 50 million Afghanis for a half-dozen kidnapped Indians. :)

Mrs. Robb: "Are there even 50 million people in that whole country?!?"

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

9. Yes, that is true. According to the US State Department protocol

guide,

"The former Ukraine SSR, was commonly known as The Ukraine, as it included parts of ethnic Moldavia and ethnic Slovakia. The independent state of Ukraine ceded those lands to other nations upon the formation of the CIS. It is not common usage to refer to Ukraine as The Ukraine now."